GetListy » Time

Top movie gimmicks

Bill Sullivan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:16:48 +0000

Hollywood types will do just about anything to herd folks into the theater.

Big star pairings? Check. Lots of stuff blowing up? You bet. Endless sequels to films that made it big? Count on it. Funky glasses to make it look as though the action is right in your face? Coming right up.

Time put together its list of the Top 10 Movie Gimmicks. Some worked well, others had their moments, and a few were complete bombs. See how many you can remember.

Here’s a peek:

To learn more about these stunts, and to see a slideshow, check out Time.

Top TV chefs

Bill Sullivan — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:55:56 +0000

While the recent release of Julie & Julia has revived discussion of the considerable merits of the late Julia Child, she is hardly the only chef to make it big on the smaller screen. Time recently put together a list of the Top 10 TV Chefs.

Here’s who made the cut:

James Beard

To read about these culinary celebrities, and to see a slide show, visit Time.com.

Worst college team names

Bill Sullivan — Wed, 27 May 2009 12:22:07 +0000

There aren’t many lakes in Los Angeles, or many grizzlies in Memphis. Moving franchises — in these cases, from Minneapolis to L.A. and Vancouver to Tennessee — took perfectly good nicknames completely out of any kind of reasonable context.

Sometimes, though, teams have bad (or just weird) names for no good reason. Time recently put together a list of the Top 10 Worst Team Names.

Here’s what they came up with:

University of California at Santa Cruz Banana Slugs

University of Hawaii Rainbow Warriors

New York University Violets

MIT Engineers

Pace (University) Setters

St. Louis College of Pharmacy Eutectics

Long Beach State Dirtbags

Grays Harbor College Chokers

University of Evansville Purple Aces

Evergreen State College Geoducks

To read more about these, and to see a slideshow of some remarkable team logos, visit Time.

Top unwarranted panics

Bill Sullivan — Wed, 13 May 2009 11:36:20 +0000

The Apocalypse appears to be canceled. Sure, swine flu is nasty business, but health care officials seem to be admitting that we’re not all going to fall victim to some sort of Stephen King-style plague sure to wipe civilization from the face of the Earth.

Of course, no one should be surprised that Americans got a little carried away with this latest doomsday scenario. We actually seem to like this sort of thing. If it’s not fear of the turn of the century or a frenzy over a fictional alien invasion, it’s a trumped-up crisis over some kind of disease or food poisoning.

As swine-mania begins to fade, Time takes a look back at some other great and largely unwarranted panics. Here’s the list:

Salmonella

War of the Worlds

Mad Cow Disease

Tylenol Poisonings

To read more about these deadly perils that we somehow managed to survive, visit Time.

Top TV feuds

Bill Sullivan — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:32:41 +0000

Was Jon Stewart really incensed about the quality of reporting on CNBC, or was he just out to boost ratings with a clever publicity stunt? Only The Daily Show host knows for sure, but his public battle with Mad Money host Jim Cramer made for some good TV — especially when Cramer appeared on Stewart’s show for a head-to-head showdown.

Either way, the Stewart-Cramer dust-up was hardly ground-breaking. Television has spawned its share of notable feuds over the years, a phenomenon that did not escape the watchful eyes of the editors at Time.

Here’s their list:

Jon Stewart vs. Jim Cramer

Stephen Colbert vs. Bill O’Reilly

Bill O’Reilly vs. Keith Olbermann

Jon Stewart vs. Crossfire

Donald Trump vs. Martha Stewart

Dan Rather vs. CBS

Elizabeth Hasselbeck vs. The View

Donald Trump vs. Rosie O’Donnell

David Letterman vs. Oprah

Matt Lauer vs. Tom Cruise

To read more about these, and to access videos of these famous confrontations, visit Time.

Most outrageous earmarks

Bill Sullivan — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 12:57:59 +0000

When the U.S. government starts throwing around hundreds of billions of dollars in the hope of getting the economy going, you can bet someone will find a way to get rich quick. By the time the first stimulus bill made its way through Congress, all kinds of odd businesses and organizations found their way on to the public payroll.

Time sifted through all the verbiage and got right to the pork. Here’s their list of the most outrageous earmarks from the October, 2008 stimulus package:

1. $2 million for children’s wooden arrow makers

2. $1.9 million for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service

3. $1 million for the New York Woodstock Museum

4. $192 million for the U.S. Territories’ rum industries

5. $188,000 for the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine

6. $98,000 to develop a walking tour of Boydton, Va.

7. $50,000 for the National Mule and Packers Museum in Bishop, Calif.

8. $583,000 for the Montana World Trade Center

9. $460,752 for beer ingredient

10. $150,000 for Rat Island

If that isn’t enough to make your blood boil, check out more details, and a slideshow, at Time.

Best blogs 2009

Bill Sullivan — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:37:49 +0000

As newspapers and traditional media in general struggle to find a foothold in journalism’s brave new world, more and more of the spread of information will be left to bloggers.

Is that a good thing? Depends on the blog. While some are merely ego-fueled drivel, plenty of blogs are run by responsible caretakers who deliver a professional-quality product.

Time recently surveyed the blogosphere in an effort to separate wheat from chaff. The result: 25 Best Blogs 2009.

Here are the first 10:

Talking Points Memo

The Huffington Post

Lifehacker

Metafilter

The Daily Dish by Andrew Sullivan

The Conscience of a Liberal: Paul Krugman

To read all about these, and to see the rest of the list and a slideshow, check out Time.

Best John Updike books

Bill Sullivan — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:00:40 +0000

The passing of John Updike touched off a round of appreciations of the prolific author’s life and works.

Time magazine responded by producing a list of what it considered Updike’s top 10 efforts.

Here’s what it looked like:

– The Rabbit Books (1960-2001)

– The Early Stories: 1953-75

– The Centaur (1963)

– Couples (1968)

– Bech: A Book (1970)

– Picked-Up Pieces (1975)

– Hugging the Shore (1983)

– The Witches of Eastwick (1984)

– Roger’s Version (1986)

– Just Looking: Essays on Art (1989)

To read a little about each of these, and to see a slideshow of covers, visit Time.

Related list:

Major works of John Updike

Top scandals of 2008

Bill Sullivan — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:25:31 +0000

Nothing captures the public imagination quite like a good, juicy scandal. Whether it’s politics, sex or money — or, better yet, all three rolled into one! — Americans love nothing more than to see the high and mighty rendered low and shamed.

In the spirit of all that, Time magazine put together a list of the top 10 scandals of the year just completed. Here’s a trip down memory lane:

1. Eliot Spitzer resigns post-hooker

2. AIG’s post-bailout spa retreat

3. John Edwards’ extra-marital affair

4. Miley Cyrus’ Vanity Fair photos

5. Sarah Palin’s $150,000 wardrobe

6. Teen pregnancies in Gloucester

7. Ted Stevens’ felony convictions

8. Max Mosley’s sex romp

9. Former Detroit mayor jailed

10. Lip-syncing in Beijing

Brings back some happy memories, doesn’t it? To read a little about each of these great moments in human achievement, visit Time.

Top buzzwords of 2008

Bill Sullivan — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 14:20:35 +0000

Which were the most interesting buzzwords to creep into our daily discourse in 2008?

As part of its end-of-year, top 10 of everything coverage, Time put together its list of the most pervasive terms to become part of our language. The first few are pretty obvious, but things get more interesting from there.

Here are the top 10:

1. Change

2. Bailout

3. Hockey mom

4. Fist bump

5. Nuke the fridge

6. Staycation

7. Rickrolled

8. PUMA

9. Tweet

10. Topless meeting

If you aren’t up on all of these, get current by visiting Time.